Building the Catholic Church couple by couple

By Christine Bordelon
Clarion Herald

Pope St. John Paul II wrote, “So goes the family, so goes the world.” The Domestic Church Movement is following his sentiments by offering sacramentally married couples the life-long support they need to grow in faith with other Catholic couples ministering to each other and passing on the faith to their children.

Casey and Kevin Sprehe, the newly elected Domestic Church chair couple in the Archdiocese of New Orleans, conducted a local organizational meeting Sept. 27 with six-year Domestic Church couple Timmy McCaffery, director of the Catholic Charismatic Renewal of New Orleans and wife Jonee’, and Office of Marriage and Family Life director Chris O’Neill, who helped the group become an independent nonprofit.

Being a couple in the Domestic Church Movement is great for marriage enrichment, O’Neill said, and strengthens Catholic parish life because couples learn that they bear responsibility for their local parish life.

“First of all, it provides the support that couples need to strengthen their marriages,” O’Neill said. “Couples are often alone (as far as growing in their faith), and it provides the care they need. It plugs them into the life of the church, so they immediately get involved in ministries in a parish.”

What is Domestic Church?

McCaffery said he and his wife, both active Catholics who prayed individually, were surprised when, after marrying, they weren’t sure how to create a couple’s prayer life. While they had joined couples’ Bible studies before, they found the Domestic Church meeting’s core of Scripture, the rosary and church teaching to be the key.

“It’s unified us spiritually (in Christ) as a couple and eventually as a family in a way we weren’t able to do,” McCaffery said. “It takes time and work, but in the end, as the work is done … it guides the conversation in the home and child raising and builds true unity which helps families move forward in faith.”

He said any sacramentally married couple can join a circle after attending a retreat. As part of a circle, couples commit to doing what’s expected of Catholics – daily individual prayer, Scripture study, couple prayer, family prayer, a monthly married couple dialog that results in positive changes for their family’s “rule of life” and attending a yearly retreat as a Domestic Church couple or as a family. Each circle has a priest chaplain, offering a fatherly presence and spiritual direction. It also gives priests direct insight to family life.

The main work of the Domestic Church happens in the home by practicing the commitments.

“The hope is that out of the home grows great fruit,” McCaffery said.

As in every household, the McCafferys and the Sprehes have both wonderful and challenging days in their home. But, knowing that other families are experiencing the same struggles, understanding and sharing their solutions make it easier.

“Domestic Church has been central to my personal prayer and Scripture study,” said Kevin Sprehe, husband of Casey for 13 years. The monthly meetings have motivated faith growing because it gives an “intentional look” at their marriage and family.

“Daily couple’s prayer has been very special to me and as a couple,” he said.

It’s a continuation of a commitment they made to each other when they met.

“So much from our spiritual life … and family life with our kids flows from our couple’s prayer,” Kevin said. “It is good to do family prayer.  You’ve got to figure out what works for you.”

“Domestic Church has given us a target … it has streamlined our vision and path as a family,” and offered resources to help in any situation, Casey Sprehe added. “And monthly circle meetings have allowed them to share their “joys and sorrows with others … to get filled up, get information and go back to your home. Nobody gets it all right every month. There’s grace in that, and it’s humbling and imperfect, but God uses it.”

Domestic Church grows

Casey Sprehe said Louisiana has the largest Domestic Church movement among the six states and 12 dioceses with circles of families nationally. Louisiana circles are in Lake Charles, New Orleans, Baton Rouge and Houma-Thibodaux. She’s found it comforting “to know that our small, little movement is part of an international movement.”

At the local meeting, McCaffery mentioned how the Domestic Church evolved from the Light-Life Movement started by Venerable Father Franciszeck Blachnicki, a friend of Pope St. John Paul II, in Poland in 1973. It spread to the United States first in Lake Charles, Louisiana, in 2011 when Domestic Church 

leaders in Poland translated formation materials into English and sent a couple and a priest to start the first English-speaking community in the world with former Archdiocese of New Orleans Marriage and Family office director David Dawson with approval from Lake Charles Bishop Glen John Prevost.

“It’s probably one of the most important things we can do in the life of the church,” O’Neill said about the Domestic Church Movement. “If couples in our diocese are strong, the life of the church in the diocese will be strong.”

Learn about the Domestic Church at https://domesticchurchfamilies.com/about-us-1.

The next Louisiana Domestic Church Oasis couples’ retreats are: Oct. 20-22, Feliciana Retreat and Conference Center, 10274 Hwy. 422, Norwood; Dec. 14-17, Maryhill Retreat Center in Pineville; and Jan. 18-21 at Lumen Christi Retreat Center in Schriever. For retreat information, visit: https://domesticchurchfamilies.com/events-1; for the local movement, call Casey Sprehe at (504) 583-4465.

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